Ranger Archive
Thread: Mask Scent patch stinks...=)
This has got me pretty twisted lately. The new patch as I'm sure you all know has put a serious damper on my hunting. I hate the way it breaks now! What sense does it make that a scent supposedly disappears when you shoot? Hunters use pheromone sprays on themselves before entering the forest, does it break when the shoot a dear? hint.. No! =) So what was the reason for the patch? I thought mask scent was working great! It was the only way I could effectively hunt larger animals with out a group of support! (and without resorting to using my pet to tank)
Please fix what wasnt broke!
On a positive note Ive noticed the camo kits work reallywell unless they have the -5k faction (another bug =(
You're not getting it...
Before the patch: Mask/ conceal would stay on throughout a fight. Whether you were struck in combat or not, it would not drop. Camouflage would only drop if you checked against a creature and failed, resulting in your detection (which was happening far too often).
This meant that our camo and scents we used were very durable under combat situations and that not even the claws of a krayt dragon or the sweat and grime of battle could remove our flimsy camo or obscure our scent masking.
Patchday: Mask/conceal would stay on until you were actually struck in combat. It allowed us to continue to get our extra concealed attack against mobs, but it still allowed social creatures and humanoids to find and attack us if their friends were under fire.
It did not conceal us from a creatures packmates if we fired upon a social creature or NPC, soyou would still be mauled to death if you"walk up to a grizzly bear and her cub and then shoot the cub".
This is the way they should have left it. This is the way N'Raas and Delta assured us that it was working on TC andIf I were either of them, I would be a tad upset that development turned around and changed the way mask and conceal funtion after all the reassuring our correspandants gave us on the matter.
Now: Mask/ conceal fly off of us if we even look a something the wrong way! If I stand 70m away from a solitary mob and initiate unarmed attack, my camouflage is destroyed!?!? Why does my camouflage disappear, just because I pull a trigger or even look at someone with bad intentions?
They had it right on patchday, why did they turn around any totally screw it up a day later? It did not allow us to wade through a pack of social animals or humanoids, shooting and slaying undetected as some people seem to think.
N'Raas, Delta, any thoughts on this matter? I would imagine both of you are pretty perturbed that development pulled the rug out from under you guys after all the reassuring you did that this is exactly the way it was not working on TC...
Ki,
Patchday: Mask/conceal would stay on until you were actually struck in combat. It allowed us to continue to get our extra concealed attack against mobs, but it still allowed social creatures and humanoids to find and attack us if their friends were under fire.
Okay - you're getting two things mixed up here. The extra "concealed" attack against mobs wasn't because of mask scent at all. You got if you were using it or you weren't using it. It was a bug. It's why when you attacked a critter that was social his buddies went after you before he did - they fixed that. Mask scent dropping had nothing to do with that.
It did not conceal us from a creatures packmates if we fired upon a social creature or NPC, soyou would still be mauled to death if you"walk up to a grizzly bear and her cub and then shoot the cub".
Same as above. The game system, I believe, wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It was a bug.
This is the way they should have left it. This is the way N'Raas and Delta assured us that it was working on TC andIf I were either of them, I would be a tad upset that development turned around and changed the way mask and conceal funtion after all the reassuring our correspandants gave us on the matter.
I never assured you that it was working like this - I said that it was WORKING. That I could sit on a kreetle and not have it aggro on me. That the 40m change was working. I don't recall what N'Raas said about it, but i never said that mask scent was still giving you 1-2 seconds- mainly because my character on TC is a TKA, so I wouldn't have noticed it anyway.
Now: Mask/ conceal fly off of us if we even look a something the wrong way! If I stand 70m away from a solitary mob and initiate unarmed attack, my camouflage is destroyed!?!? Why does my camouflage disappear, just because I pull a trigger or even look at someone with bad intentions?
They had it right on patchday, why did they turn around any totally screw it up a day later? It did not allow us to wade through a pack of social animals or humanoids, shooting and slaying undetected as some people seem to think.
It was changed because it was keyed to your first pistol shot. So meleers and TKAs weren't having mask scent break. So they fixed it because this was obviously not fair to the non-melee classed guys.
Contrary to popular belief, and I've said this about a zillion times, mask scent and conceal ARE NOT COMBAT SKILLS. They're designed to help you survive in the wild, not be an invisible hunter. They're also there to help BEs and CHs do their jobs as well. Mask scent was never intended to work the way its working.
Now do I agree with this? Like I said before - for Mask scent, I think its fine. But for conceal, it shouldn't be this way. It shouldn't break when you enter combat, as its too expensive for that to happen. Mask scent costs nothing - so its no big deal if it breaks. Conceal DOES cost something and there are legit real life reasons why conceal shouldn't break, but mask scent should.
I am fine with the way that Mask Scent is now working, and considering the lack of massive flames on the Scout forums, most of the Scouts are too. Conceal still needs tweaking, and I'll be working with N'Raas to get that done.
B
Guys,
The line "mask scent was never designed to work the way its working" SHOULD read:
"mask scent was never designed to work the way it seemed to be working before".
Man, I need more coffee.
Oh - and that Mask Scent patch stinking? I think that's actually my socks.
/smell
B
Geez I'm retarded.
The reason for the change wasn't that it was keyed to your pistol shot. It was keyed to you taking damage.
So ranged people weren't getting hit and were getting to keep it up. Meleers weren't getting that. That's why it was changed.
Sorry. I really need to go to bed now.
B
"So ranged people weren't getting hit and were getting to keep it up. Meleers weren't getting that. That's why it was changed."
And that doesn't make sense? I think that is the way it should work...
There is no reason for your camouflage to be destroyed just because you initiate combat. Let the social creatures in the area defend themselves, but do not make our camouflage and scent masking fly off when we look at someone/thing the wrong way...
Ki,
Well, those most be some piercing stares you're giving them.
Meleer's get screwed most of the time in our class, so they deserve to at least get the same penalties as the Ranged guys do.
But, in any event, I agree with you about conceal.
Mask scent is different - not as useful, not an elite skill, so this is okay for that. But Conceal SHOULD work the way you expect it to.
B
"Well, those most be some piercing stares you're giving them"
Yeah, I noticed this the other day when I accidently initiated combat with a dewback that was about 100m away... My camouflage immediately vanished and the whole pack came running after me.
Maybe I'm alone on this, but I'd say that makes no sense at all...
I'm not overly concerned with Mask Scent working this way either, since there is no cost associated with applying it.
Yeah, I was jazzed when the patch came through. I could start making camo kits without spending half a day finding some abstract resource. First thing I did once the servers stabalized was collect the specific resources I needed for corellia's camo kit. Once that was done, I quickly cranked out a pack and applied one. The first aggro npc I walk 70m from (not an exageration. That's how far away it was) aggros me without breaking camo however, it did break when I took damage though. I didn't post this before since my camoflauge skill is only at +40 (level 2 wayfaring). Here's a concise spread of my experiences with camo breaking (mask scent as well but as has been said, that's no biggie since it's free)
Some high level npc's like the Lord Nyax dudes, Flails, aggro me when I get 70m from them as described above.
It breaks when I engage in combat. Specifically it breaks when I take damage or after my first attack whichever comes first.
If I succesfully run past a mob without camo breaking, it sometimes checks against the mob on my way away from the mob and breaks.
Some mobs it doesn't seem to check against until 40m instead of the 60 or 62m (can't remember which) it's supposed to check at. It defeats the purpose of the 40m aggro range if it doesn't bother to check until 40m... I'm not sure if this is actually a range problem or a time delay, though,because if I stop at 60m and wait when I don't get the xp message immediately it usually shows up.
The only real problem I see with camo is the combat breakage. I believe it shouldn't break until you take damage (the ham costs of specials not counting). The cost doesn't meet it's usefullness otherwise. It's simply too expensive to use right now. Mask scent as Delta pointed out is a non issue. It's free. Overall, I think the devs are doing a good jobas are Nraas and Delta.
"Meleer's get screwed most of the time in our class, so they deserve to at least get the same penalties as the Ranged guys do."
I had no problem with my /maskscent failing while the Ranged fighters in my group kept theirs.
The effect was actually pretty handy as I didn't have to keep reapplying the /conceal to everyone in my group... Only those that took damage.
Well, nowwe see the developers true vision of the skill... Time tostart asking for changes.